Montreux and Sion

We flew into Zurich, but our first couple nights were in Montreux on the other side of the country. The thing is Switzerland isn't really that big and it has an excellent train system. So we arrived in Montreux around lunch time completely exhausted. As soon as our hotel room was ready (several hours after we check-in), we all crashed.

Swiss train station sign

Taking a walk along Lake Geneva waiting for our hotel room to be ready.

Our hotel, Eden Palace, right on the water. It was pretty good, but desperately needed new carpet. 

The ferry that connects the towns and cities on Lake Geneva.

View from our hotel room balcony looking into France.

We had a late dinner in Montreux the first night. It was an Italian place. Inga's dinner request the whole trip was pizza.

Fox and Ornery posing in front of the Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux.

 We didn't do much sightseeing in the Swiss Riviera. We pretty much stayed in Montreux just to be close to an early morning departure of the GoldenPass line, but more about that later. For Inga's 2nd birthday, we took a train to Sion, the capital of the canton Valais. Valais is home to ski towns, the Matterhorn, wineries, and the oldest Catholic diocese north of the Alps, in Sion.

Sion train station

Immediately after getting off the train, we took a bus into the mountains to the ski town of Haute Nendaz. We had a slight detour when we got off the bus in Basse Nendaz, but got to see some of small town Valais in our walk up the mountainside. The previous post on Swiss gardens has picture of the cemetery in Basse Nendaz. Once in Haute Nendaz, we road the gondola up to a ski area because it was such a clear day.

Inga's first gondola ride. She LOVES gondolas now.

Tracouet had a playground and restaurant. This was like a mid-mountain ski station. The sign to the right in the picture showed the lifts that were open for hikers.

 We had lunch at the restaurant at the top and discovered the best way to make a ham sandwich. Hearth bread, soft cheese as a spread (like brie), mustard, cured ham, hard cheese (like Emmental), and a little pickle (sweet and spicy, not dill) made the best sandwich. We used this recipe for the rest of the trip. The restaurant also had a changing table! (Those are hard to find in Switerzland.) We didn't do any hiking because we wanted to go back to Sion to see the castle and old city.

Pretty Alpine lake

Our attempt at a family photo. You can see Sion at the bottom of the valley.

View of Rhone valley

 Sion is known for its medieval old city and the Chateau de Tourbillon and Basilique de Valere. The Basilique de Valere is a fortified church and monastery that Pope John Paul II named a basilica. The church is on a smaller hill so that's the one I wanted to walk to as I was carrying Inga.

View of vineyards above Sion

Old building outside the church walls.

Chateau de Tourbillon on the hill opposite the church.

Inside the church altar

The church's organ was built about 1435 and is one of the old playable organs in the world.

There was a museum in the monastery I kind of wanted to see, but it cost money and Inga was really worn out by this point.

View of old Sion

Tunnel street!

Center of the old city

We all took naps on some grass by the Cathedral Notre Dame de Fatima.

Beautiful fountain and the flag of Valais

 I really liked Sion. The people were very friendly and relaxed. I could tell they don't get many American tourists in Sion especially at that time of year. I really just saw Swiss people out enjoying a Friday afternoon in late summer. I had to laugh when we left Sion at 8pm that all the teenagers who had come into the big city for Friday night were leaving at 8pm. The Swiss do not stay out late.

Probably the most embarrassing toddler moment of the trip came on the train ride back to Montreux. It was passed Inga's bedtime at this point, but we still had a 45 minute train ride back. We got on the first train to Montreux that arrived at the station. It was a EuroCity train that had originated in Milan and was heading to the Geneva airport. It was packed with business travelers. We could only find two open seats and put Inga on my lap. This led to a toddler meltdown with Inga crying, "Want seat. My turn. My turn." The fit lasted pretty much the entire ride to Montreux.

But it was her 2nd birthday after all and we hadn't gotten her any cake. Well, we still didn't. We got her some ice cream instead. "Birday i cream" as Inga said.

Inga crashed hard that night. Happy Birthday.